365 #17 - Saturday, January 21

Today I'm thankful for some time to acclimate.

Woke up to 3 inches of snow on the ground, 18 degrees, and lots more falling.  Got up and out, caught the 8:40 train to Manhattan.  Met my brother at Grand Central station, and spent a couple hours in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  It's pretty amazing - maybe as good as the Smithsonian.  It's the only thing I can start to compare it to.    Then we had lunch at a deli.  Service was terrible, food was pretty good.

After lunch, we joined his wife for a student performance at Juilliard.  Good stuff, and nice to step in out of the cold.  There were kids sledding in Central Park, the sidewalks were white or light gray.  The streets were a gray, dry slush for the most part.  Slush in Oregon is half-melted snow.  Here, it was cold, so the snow hadn't really melted, and wasn't in a melting mood.  So it turned gray, stayed frozen, and gradually moved to the side of the streets.

After Juilliard, we went to Brooklyn where he lives, and had a nice dinner at his house.  Caught the 9:05 train home, and drove clear streets back to the hotel.  So today, I drove many miles of snowy roads, walked probably 2 miles (maybe 3) on snowy sidewalks, spent 3 hours outside at 20 degrees or so, defrosted, desnowed and de-iced my car twice, and used the Metro North rail system.  Acclimation?  Check.

Time for sleeping.  Church starts in 8 hours, and I really should sleep a little.